4 Swiss Catholics on 7-month pilgrimage arrived at year's end with message that people can overcome differences.

This year, more than 3.1 million tourists visited Israel. Included in
those numbers were thousands of Jewish, Christian and Muslim pilgrims who
traveled to the Holy Land in search of a religious or spiritual
experience. Coming to Israel from abroad usually involves some form of
air or sea transportation. But for four devout Catholics from Switzerland, a
true pilgrimage to Israel could only be done the old-fashioned way – on
foot.

Arriving in time for Christmas, these pilgrims – two men and two
women – trekked for seven months, covering 2,672 miles through 11 countries in a
dangerous, life-altering journey to spread their message of peace and
coexistence among the diverse peoples they encountered along the
way.

Setting off from Switzerland on June 2, the travelers walked an
average of 18.6 miles a day through Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia
and Bulgaria before arriving in Turkey, where they spent two
months.

Despite serious concerns over the unraveling political situation,
the group managed to enter Syria, where they stayed two weeks before crossing
into Jordan on November 27. They spent three weeks in Amman documenting their
travels for an upcoming book and were then joined by 30 other Swiss/German
pilgrims on their last leg, which culminated in a December 21 arrival at
Israel’s borders. From there, it was an uphill climb from the Dead Sea
area to Jerusalem, and finally to Bethlehem in time for Christmas mass.

The Jerusalem Post
caught up with the group on a stop at the desolate St. George’s Monastery
in the middle of the Judean Desert. Despite their long and rigorous journey, the
four appeared physically intact, bearing only minor blisters, and expressed
without doubt how spiritually uplifting the experience was.

Franz Mali,
50, a Roman Catholic priest and a professor of theology and church history at
the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, was in charge of navigating the group’s
route from start to finish, relying on, among other things, GPS and Google
Maps.

While their walking path was mapped out, the pilgrims had no set
arrangements for food and lodging along the way. Nevertheless, Mali said that
“the hospitality all over the world was absolutely impressive.” He stressed that
the greatest revelation he had gained from the experience was that “God’s
providence is always timely.”

“God is always there at the right moment,”
he said. “If you need anything in your life, a bed to sleep in, something to
drink, even if there is nothing around, when you need it, it will be there. I
experienced this firsthand.”

When asked why they hadn’t used a more
conventional mode of travel, Mali said the group had wanted to “express their
authentic respect for the people of Israel.”

“We didn’t think it was
enough to come by plane,” he explained. “We’re not tourists here to just take
pictures, and for me, visiting Israel for the first time, I wanted to arrive on
foot in order to approach the scene by truly getting into the
experience.”

Christian Rutishauser, 45, is the program director of the
Lassalle-House organization, which is dedicated to interreligious dialogue and
social responsibility and which coordinated the pilgrimage. He asserted that “in
making this commitment to come to the Holy Land by foot through many different
landscapes and cultures, we hoped to show that even today, people can overcome
their differences in a spirit of hope and mutual
understanding.”

Rutishauser, who is also a Roman Catholic priest, a
university professor and an official delegate of the Vatican for
Jewish-Christian relations, came up with the idea of a walking pilgrimage nearly
20 years ago.

However, his vision only started to take shape in 2009,
when he, Mali and two female colleagues – Hildegard Aepli, 48, and Esther
Rutherman, 43 – started the intense two-year process of planning for the
trek.

Resting on a breathtaking ledge overlooking St. George’s,
Rutishauser said he viewed the trip as a great success.

“The main purpose
of a pilgrimage (especially over a seven-month period) is the inner process,
with an emphasis on spiritual growth,” he said, noting that he had personally
reflected on the will of God and how he could contribute to peace and justice in
the world – issues he will commit himself to pursuing when he goes back
home.

Both he and Mali admitted that there had been hardships along the
route, including tensions among the four travelers – though Mali felt this was
normal, since “you’re together with the same group of people night and day for
seven months straight,” and said that despite this, the four had truly
bonded.

However, none of those tensions could compare to the dangers they
faced while navigating through Syria, as the travelers tried to avoid areas of
conflict in a country undergoing a violent revolution.

In one
hair-raising incident, a Syrian soldier in a local village, seeing four
strangers arriving, brandished his pistol and demanded to inspect the group’s
belongings. Not understanding his dialect – and at this point with the gun
pointed in his direction – Rutishauser tried to calm the soldier down and
explain the group’s purpose. After some tense minutes, the message that the four
were not a threat came across, and the soldier put away his
weapon.

According to the priest, the soldier must have made their
presence known to high-ranking authorities after that incident, since an
official government security force was assigned to protect the pilgrims as they
made their way south toward Jordan. The last thing Syria would have wanted,
Rutishauser speculates, was for the world to hear that four Westerners had been
harmed while in the country. The security guards even lied to suspicious locals
on the group’s behalf, saying they were Christian pilgrims in the country
visiting the sacred monasteries in the town of Maalula, near
Damascus.

The four were overcome with relief when they crossed into
Jordan. They made camp in Amman, logging their experiences and waiting for their
fellow pilgrims to join them.

Following Christmas in Bethlehem, they were
scheduled to share their experiences at a major interfaith conference on
modern-day pilgrimage on December 28-29 in Jerusalem, organized by
Lassalle-House and the Jerusalem-based Elijah Interfaith
Institute.

Elijah Institute founder and director Rabbi Alon
Goshen-Gottstein said that while pilgrimage was an aspect of religious
observance typically associated with ancient times, this event proved that these
journeys continued to hold a special message for people of all
religions.

“These modern-day adventurers set out on an experience defined
by spirituality and peace, and this week [at the conference,] we will look
forward to saluting this remarkable accomplishment,” he said. “Their devotion
and sacrifice proves that the spirit which defined the pilgrimages by foot of
centuries past remains in our world today as a source of inspiration and
hope.”

The group spent its remaining time in Israel visiting holy sites
throughout the country before heading back to Switzerland on January 6. Asked
how they were getting home, Rutishauser smiled and said, “By plane – no more
walking for us.”